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Chinese space programme Sir, This pertains to the article (25th June), ''China aims at manned space launch in 2001''. For this you quote the U.S Defence Dept as your source. First of all please do not get the impression that I am adversely critical of China but the real facts regarding the Chinese space programme are totally different from what the U.S. Defence Deptt. wants us to believe. You all might recollect that the US Defence Dept. before the recent Indian nuclear weapons tests often mentioned that India had no nuclear weapons. While all experts were aware that not only did India have a large nuclear arsenal but India has also in addition to this accumulated several tons of Plutonium-239. In fact India had even accumulatd the much sought after Uranium-233. I might mention that few countries in the world have access to Uranium-233. Quite in contrast to U-235, U-233 is extremely difficult to obtain. What this tells us is that often the U.S. news in meant to further her (U.S) interests only and is often a fabrication of data. The story of the Chinese space programme is the same as everything else related to science and technology in China. Due to the CR (Cultural Revolution) from the period of 1966-1976 everything in China went backwards. Not only were eminent scientists sent to work in farms but many were even liquidated. The result china today lacks a scientific and industrial infrastructure and also poverty is widespread in that country. The recent disaster in which several Chinese (who had fled the Mainland for a better life- died in Britain due to suffocation in a truck reflects the plight of the common person in China without any ambiguity. In space to this day the Chinese have only been successful in launching satellites such as the Iridium series with a weight of less than a ton in the near earth orbit. However when China signed the CTBT in a September 1996 the US as a deal promised China (this is now a commonly known fact) that they will transfer space hardware to China so that China can launch a man into space. This launching of a man into space is meant to be more of a publicity stunt by China rather than a genuine scientific feat. In addition to this the U.S had also promised to train Chinese astronauts. At present all intelligence and scientific data points to the fact that the Chinese have a already launched and retrieved cockroaches from space. These organisms as is well known are very sturdy and can even survive high doses of radiation. Therefore it is quite likely that if China is able to put all the U.S supplied hardware together they will soon be able to place a man into space. Actually in reality to this day the Chinese have no indigenous space launch vehicle comparable to the Indian GSLV. Finally in my opinion the real status of the Chinese science becomes quite clear by the fact that the mainland Chinese have yet to produce a single Nobel Prize ! Yours etc... |
